I don’t know about you, but the hotter days of Summer feed my cravings for Mexican-style food. One of my favorite and super easy meals to make after work is chicken enchiladas. This recipe takes about 10 minutes to put together and 25-30 minutes to cook. I’ve been making these for about 2 years now. Brought some of the enchilidas you see here in to the office and received fabulous feedback. Give them a try and let me know what you think. Happy eating.

Ingredients

• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 3 cups (12 oz) of shredded cheese (Sharp or Mexican)
• A large can of green enchilada sauce
• 1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles
• 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro or (a little less than) 1/4 cup of dried
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 package of soft corn or flour tortillas (your preference)
• Lime wedges

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large bowl, add the chicken and shred it.
• Then add 2 cups of the shredded cheese, 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce, the green chiles, and cilantro.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste (about 6-10 cranks). Mix well.

    

• Prepare the tortillas: (1) use them right out of the bag or (2) stack them on a microwave-safe plate, cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high about 40-60 seconds. Heating them makes them more pliable. I did not heat them when I made them this time, and they’re fine, but I used flour tortillas.
• Put a tortilla on the counter, cutting board, or plate. Place 1/3 cup of the chicken mix onto the tortilla. Then spread it down the tortilla as evenly as possible.
• Tightly roll the tortilla around the filling.

        

• Lay the tortilla seam-side down in a 9″x13″ backing dish that you have lightly coated with vegetable oil spray.
• Continue until all the filling is used.
• Lightly spray the enchiladas with vegetable oil spray. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas until they are all coated.
• Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese down the center of each enchilada.

    

• Cover the dish with foil and back 20-25 minutes.
• Remove the foil and broil for about 5 minutes until they are nicely brown.
• Serve with lime wedges.

  

Ideas

• You can cook your own chicken and shred it, but that’s a lot more work than I want to do in the evening. Canned cooked chicken works great and I’ve never had anyone be able to tell the difference.
• When using flour tortillas, I usually don’t pre-warm them. For corn tortillas, this step should really be done so you don’t tear them.
• If you do not like your food too spicy, either omit of minimize the 4 oz of green chiles.
• Number of tortillas to roll? I usually only make 8. If you make more, you can have a second row on top of the first. This is fine, but then I feel they do not all get the enchilada sauce and cheese that I prefer.
• Broiling – I like to broil on low for about 3 minutes and then switch to high to finish. My husband prefers nicely browned enchiladas and I prefer mine a little more moist. Every oven has different rates of cooking, especially when broiling, so watch closely and rotate as needed.